Biodiversity, Conservation, and Protected Areas

While the concept of biodiversity is relatively new, efforts to protect biodiversity are long-standing, traceable to some of the earliest debates within mainstream environmentalism. For the next several weeks we will examine two key debates related to biodiversity conservation: whether or not protected area are a good means of protecting biodiversity and whether or not markets can help in this project. This week will help to orient you to some of the key questions in these debates through a general reading from your textbook on Biodiversity, Conservation, and Protected Areas. As you read this chapter, think about some of the following questions: What are the drivers of biodiversity loss, whose responsibility it to curtail biodiversity loss, and can we do so without prohibiting human use? Who should get to decide what is worth conserving, and for that matter, what is natural and what is not? What protected areas and conservation sites are you familiar with? How do the rules in these spaces affect you, your family, and your communities, whether for the better or for the worse?

There are no simple answers to these questions: as you will learn, the answers often depend on what the specific challenges are, what the claims on resources in that area are, and the specific nature of biological diversity in a given area. People's beliefs and values also differ considerably: Some people, for instance, believe that conservation planning should take precedence (or priority) over economic development and human settlement. Others believe that conservation can be compatible with human use (and indeed, that biodiversity may have tremendous economic value). The goal of this introductory module is not to convince you that a single right approach exists. What we will instead try to think about is what it might actually mean to enact efforts to conserve or protect biodiversity. Note, while your textbook focuses on land-based resources, we could apply many of the same considerations to marine systems. We’ll talk about water resources more beginning in Week 7.